For All Mankind (1989)
92% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 12 reviews)
Runtime: 80 minutes
Directed by: Al Reinert
Starring: The Apollo Astronauts in archival footage and narration
From: Apollo Associates
As I didn’t have time to watch a movie in the past few days I’ll have to talk about a pair of movies I saw in July right around the time of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. One of them I talked about on my blogs but the other I did not. First, the one I did not, For All Mankind, a movie that, among other places, you can find from Criterion.
It’s a movie where the only dialogue is snippets of audio from archival footage. Interesting idea and for the most part it works. You get to see what a typical Apollo mission was like and you get to see much in the way of incredible footage of what the astronauts saw while they were in space. Working so well with the images was the soundtrack provided by ambient music legend Brian Eno. It matched perfectly with the haunting ethereal images you saw on the screen. Apparently, the movie was made in 1983 but for whatever reason it didn’t come out until 1989; I don’t know why that was the case but at least in ’89 it was the 20th anniversary of Apollo 11, so there’s that. If you’re interested in the subject of space flight or our missions to the moon, this is a must-see.
The Wonder of It All (2007)
Runtime: 82 minutes
Directed by: Jeffrey Roth
Starring: The Apollo Astronauts in archival footage and interviews
From: Indican Pictures
To copy and paste from what I wrote on MySpace/Facebook:
“What I did on this day was drop off a relative at the Orlando International Airport and then headed out to the Atlantic coast, as I was like halfway there already by being at the Airport. So, I drove to Cocoa Beach and stayed there for a little bit before heading on over to nearby Merritt Island to see a movie there that’s only playing in that area of Florida. It’s a documentary on the moon landings (and if anyone says that they were staged… I’ll punch you in the nose!) entitled The Wonder of it All. It showed footage of the space program and it was mainly interviews with various former astronauts edited together into a narrative style. While it started to drag near the end, overall it was a very interesting movie about the lives of the astronauts and what they’ve done since walking on the moon. I know it’s a niche thing but I was still surprised that I was only one of four people there. Oh well. I drove back home and like the way to Cocoa Beach, road rage happened. Those people deserved it, at least!”
Yeah, I don’t have too much else to say about it besides the fact that it worked nicely with For All Mankind, and one of these days I’ll watch In the Shadow of the Moon, a very highly acclaimed documentary on the same subject. Once I do I’ll talk about it on here. As for viewing Wonder, it hasn’t come out on DVD yet and it being screened in Merritt Island was totally random. Who knows when it’ll be out for more than a few people to see. Judging by IMDb, not too many people have seen it yet, and that’s unfortunate.
I’ll post something here Monday night.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Inglourious Basterds Revisited
I know, long time no write but stuff prevented me from doing much movie watching as of late, let alone updating this. But, by Friday night I'll post at least one new movie review. Promise. To copy and paste from my latest MySpace entry:
Monday I ended up seeing Inglourious Basterds again. This time it was at the local theatre in Clermont. I enjoyed it more the second time around, and I was able to accept the “plot twist” I mentioned before much better than I did the first time I saw it in Daytona Beach. So, I can say with confidence now that this is Quentin’s best movie and you should see it if it’s the type of film you think you’ll like.
To elaborate a little more, it did help me to read some comments and thoughts on the movie from the people on the CHUD.com messageboard. It helped me look at things a little differently and I now viewed the plot twist differently and I'm saying that I liked it more out of genuine thought, rather than trying to go with the flow and agreeing with the general consensus. As for how it was to see the movie again with an audience... well, believe it or not, even though the theatre opened in like April of this year, I was the only person in the auditorium to see the film! I kid you not, this happened and on a Monday night. I know that the theatre was almost deserted when I entered it and it was more so when I left it. Seeing a grand total of like 20 cars in the parking lot (and some of them may have been employee cars) is a bad sign for that theatre and I hope it's doing well and is not in trouble.
Monday I ended up seeing Inglourious Basterds again. This time it was at the local theatre in Clermont. I enjoyed it more the second time around, and I was able to accept the “plot twist” I mentioned before much better than I did the first time I saw it in Daytona Beach. So, I can say with confidence now that this is Quentin’s best movie and you should see it if it’s the type of film you think you’ll like.
To elaborate a little more, it did help me to read some comments and thoughts on the movie from the people on the CHUD.com messageboard. It helped me look at things a little differently and I now viewed the plot twist differently and I'm saying that I liked it more out of genuine thought, rather than trying to go with the flow and agreeing with the general consensus. As for how it was to see the movie again with an audience... well, believe it or not, even though the theatre opened in like April of this year, I was the only person in the auditorium to see the film! I kid you not, this happened and on a Monday night. I know that the theatre was almost deserted when I entered it and it was more so when I left it. Seeing a grand total of like 20 cars in the parking lot (and some of them may have been employee cars) is a bad sign for that theatre and I hope it's doing well and is not in trouble.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
A Hilarious Story
As I don’t have the time to see and post any movie reviews until *at least* Monday night, I’ll just write something short for tonight. It has to do with this article from chud.com.
In short, it deals with a movie that was filmed in 1992 involving Genghis Khan and it had some famous faces attached to it. Problem is, despite the fact that the budget was either 45 million or 55 million bucks (depends on who’s telling the story), they ran out of money either way and it wasn’t until just this year (!) that it was finished by director Ken Annakin (he directed, amongst other things, Swiss Family Robinson and Battle of the Bulge; yes, he was 94 when he passed away a few months ago) and “soon” it’s supposed to come out to DVD.
That’s interesting enough, but note that it has Charlton Heston and Pat Morita in the cast, so you get to see something new from these late actors. The guy who played the title role of this motion picture, though, will shock you. It’s Richard Tyson. Don’t recognize the name? I know him best for being the villain in Kindergarten Cop. Yes, this guy. No offense to him, but he looks SO European that he could never pass for any sort of Asian, let alone a Mongol. It’s even more ridiculous than The Conqueror, that mid 50’s movie where John Wayne (!) played Khan. Yes I’ve seen that and it IS as bad as you may have heard. I’ll need to rent it again from the library so that I can talk about it more in depth here, and how it was so putrid and how it allegedly caused cancer for many of the cast members due to where they shot it, and some of the howlingly goofy dialogue that Wayne uttered.
Anyway, even better is that the upcoming Khan motion picture has a trailer out already and it’s something else, to say the very least. Seeing CHARLTON HESTON as a Mongol is pretty laughable. Thus, I can’t wait to see this flick ASAP.
In short, it deals with a movie that was filmed in 1992 involving Genghis Khan and it had some famous faces attached to it. Problem is, despite the fact that the budget was either 45 million or 55 million bucks (depends on who’s telling the story), they ran out of money either way and it wasn’t until just this year (!) that it was finished by director Ken Annakin (he directed, amongst other things, Swiss Family Robinson and Battle of the Bulge; yes, he was 94 when he passed away a few months ago) and “soon” it’s supposed to come out to DVD.
That’s interesting enough, but note that it has Charlton Heston and Pat Morita in the cast, so you get to see something new from these late actors. The guy who played the title role of this motion picture, though, will shock you. It’s Richard Tyson. Don’t recognize the name? I know him best for being the villain in Kindergarten Cop. Yes, this guy. No offense to him, but he looks SO European that he could never pass for any sort of Asian, let alone a Mongol. It’s even more ridiculous than The Conqueror, that mid 50’s movie where John Wayne (!) played Khan. Yes I’ve seen that and it IS as bad as you may have heard. I’ll need to rent it again from the library so that I can talk about it more in depth here, and how it was so putrid and how it allegedly caused cancer for many of the cast members due to where they shot it, and some of the howlingly goofy dialogue that Wayne uttered.
Anyway, even better is that the upcoming Khan motion picture has a trailer out already and it’s something else, to say the very least. Seeing CHARLTON HESTON as a Mongol is pretty laughable. Thus, I can’t wait to see this flick ASAP.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Inglourious Basterds
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
88% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 213 reviews)
Runtime: 153 minutes
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Michael Fassbinder, Eli Roth
From: Weinstein Company/Universal
As I had stated already, previous to my viewing this motion picture, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it or not. I mean, Tarantino’s hit or miss with me so I didn’t know what to expect.
To quote from a MySpace blog I wrote about the experience:
“To continue on with this, Saturday I went to Daytona Beach; I was hoping to go on the beach itself, but as the weather was ass, so I instead went and saw the movie Inglourious Basterds and then went to a nearby wrestling show. There was a lot of people in that screening and much to my surprise, they were actually patient with that 2 ½ hour movie, and it was filled with subtitled dialogue too. I really enjoyed it… until one plot point happened. At the time and even up to about Sunday I didn’t care for it and thought it really hampered the film. But, after some thought, I don’t think it’s as bad as I initially thought. I’ll still see it again to see if I view the movie any differently now… in short, I still recommend you see the movie, but like I said it has a good amount of subtitles, it’s a typical Tarantino movie filled with much dialogue, and what violence you get to see is pretty brutal (scalpings!), so as long as you know that… oh, and the Basterds aren’t as much of the story as you’d guess if you’ve only seen the commercials for it.”
To elaborate, I’m real interested in seeing this again (although I don’t plan on that to be until next week) as with a new perspective on it maybe I won’t be bugged by that one moment and if I see that as being better than I initially thought, I’m prepared to say this is the best thing that Quentin has ever done. Yes, even better than Pulp Fiction. This long tale is more about revenge and love of the cinema (no, really) than about the Basterds and their exploits, but the story is so magnificent-for the most part-and the acting from the actors all across America *and* Europe was quality stuff. Even Mike Myers was fine in the one scene he had, although I don’t know why he was in the movie, aside from him possibly being owed a favor by Tarantino, or maybe he just loves his British accent. Fair or not, I couldn’t help but think “Austin Powers” the entire time I heard Myers.
THE performance of the movie, though, was from Waltz as Landa, a “Jew Hunter” who was the main antagonist of the movie. He was so sly as a detective who could speak several different languages well and could manipulate people with ease. The opening scene that he had with the owner of a farm in France (Denis Menochet) proved this right away, and seeing the ending of the scene and how Denis slowly but surely reacted to what he ended up having to do was a very moving moment.
I won’t reveal much more as that may ruin things, but I’ll say that it’s more than one plot that you see in the film and it all comes together in a hot finale in Paris, and amongst the way you get talk about such stuff as German director G.W. Pabst, French food, shoes, and the “celebrity” game where you stick the name of a celebrity on your forehead and other people answer your questions to reveal the identity of who it is.
I'll be back in a few days with another movie or two to talk about here.
88% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 213 reviews)
Runtime: 153 minutes
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Michael Fassbinder, Eli Roth
From: Weinstein Company/Universal
As I had stated already, previous to my viewing this motion picture, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it or not. I mean, Tarantino’s hit or miss with me so I didn’t know what to expect.
To quote from a MySpace blog I wrote about the experience:
“To continue on with this, Saturday I went to Daytona Beach; I was hoping to go on the beach itself, but as the weather was ass, so I instead went and saw the movie Inglourious Basterds and then went to a nearby wrestling show. There was a lot of people in that screening and much to my surprise, they were actually patient with that 2 ½ hour movie, and it was filled with subtitled dialogue too. I really enjoyed it… until one plot point happened. At the time and even up to about Sunday I didn’t care for it and thought it really hampered the film. But, after some thought, I don’t think it’s as bad as I initially thought. I’ll still see it again to see if I view the movie any differently now… in short, I still recommend you see the movie, but like I said it has a good amount of subtitles, it’s a typical Tarantino movie filled with much dialogue, and what violence you get to see is pretty brutal (scalpings!), so as long as you know that… oh, and the Basterds aren’t as much of the story as you’d guess if you’ve only seen the commercials for it.”
To elaborate, I’m real interested in seeing this again (although I don’t plan on that to be until next week) as with a new perspective on it maybe I won’t be bugged by that one moment and if I see that as being better than I initially thought, I’m prepared to say this is the best thing that Quentin has ever done. Yes, even better than Pulp Fiction. This long tale is more about revenge and love of the cinema (no, really) than about the Basterds and their exploits, but the story is so magnificent-for the most part-and the acting from the actors all across America *and* Europe was quality stuff. Even Mike Myers was fine in the one scene he had, although I don’t know why he was in the movie, aside from him possibly being owed a favor by Tarantino, or maybe he just loves his British accent. Fair or not, I couldn’t help but think “Austin Powers” the entire time I heard Myers.
THE performance of the movie, though, was from Waltz as Landa, a “Jew Hunter” who was the main antagonist of the movie. He was so sly as a detective who could speak several different languages well and could manipulate people with ease. The opening scene that he had with the owner of a farm in France (Denis Menochet) proved this right away, and seeing the ending of the scene and how Denis slowly but surely reacted to what he ended up having to do was a very moving moment.
I won’t reveal much more as that may ruin things, but I’ll say that it’s more than one plot that you see in the film and it all comes together in a hot finale in Paris, and amongst the way you get talk about such stuff as German director G.W. Pabst, French food, shoes, and the “celebrity” game where you stick the name of a celebrity on your forehead and other people answer your questions to reveal the identity of who it is.
I'll be back in a few days with another movie or two to talk about here.
The Split
The Split (1968)
Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by: Gordon Flemyng
Starring: Jim Brown, Diahann Carroll, Ernest Borgnine, Gene Hackman, Donald Sutherland
From: MGM
Here’s a rather obscure movie. I mean, I say that as not only isn’t it on DVD, it apparently was never on home video at all! That’s right, no VHS or hell, even Betamax. Not that I’ve really looked to find out why, but it’s rather odd to me, considering the cast it has and the fact that according to what I’ve read, once the MPAA was created, this was the first movie ever to get an R rating. Current times, it’s PG-13 level material, but that’s how it was back then.
The way I was able to see this was that last week it was on one morning on TCM. Yep, Turner Classic Movies is a pretty sweet place, although I don’t watch as much of it as I should. I taped it onto a blank VCR tape (snicker if you wish for me not having a DVR or Tivo or anything else) and watched it just last night. During the period of time between the airing and me watching it, some people on a messageboard praised it.
My opinion… not too praise-worthy. It’s a crime drama about a group of thieves who steal the money from the box office of a pro football game in Los Angeles, back when pro football was played in LA and only a few years after Brown retired from being one of the best NFL players of all time. After that, the group feuds with the money… and well, I won’t give it away, but overall I thought this was a lackluster movie. I mean, the story didn’t always captivate me, there were obvious jump-cuts and as others online have noted, it seemed like entire scenes were missing thus making the narrative hard to follow at times. It was nice seeing a famous cast work together, and it’s pretty odd seeing a fight in an office between Brown and Borgnine, but otherwise I wouldn’t say this is worth going out of your way to see, even though it DOES have the typically groovy soundtrack from Quincy Jones. Still, I’m not sure why it got praised on that one board, although as you can guess already, I don’t always agree with the popular or even the “niche” opinion, no matter how small it is.
Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by: Gordon Flemyng
Starring: Jim Brown, Diahann Carroll, Ernest Borgnine, Gene Hackman, Donald Sutherland
From: MGM
Here’s a rather obscure movie. I mean, I say that as not only isn’t it on DVD, it apparently was never on home video at all! That’s right, no VHS or hell, even Betamax. Not that I’ve really looked to find out why, but it’s rather odd to me, considering the cast it has and the fact that according to what I’ve read, once the MPAA was created, this was the first movie ever to get an R rating. Current times, it’s PG-13 level material, but that’s how it was back then.
The way I was able to see this was that last week it was on one morning on TCM. Yep, Turner Classic Movies is a pretty sweet place, although I don’t watch as much of it as I should. I taped it onto a blank VCR tape (snicker if you wish for me not having a DVR or Tivo or anything else) and watched it just last night. During the period of time between the airing and me watching it, some people on a messageboard praised it.
My opinion… not too praise-worthy. It’s a crime drama about a group of thieves who steal the money from the box office of a pro football game in Los Angeles, back when pro football was played in LA and only a few years after Brown retired from being one of the best NFL players of all time. After that, the group feuds with the money… and well, I won’t give it away, but overall I thought this was a lackluster movie. I mean, the story didn’t always captivate me, there were obvious jump-cuts and as others online have noted, it seemed like entire scenes were missing thus making the narrative hard to follow at times. It was nice seeing a famous cast work together, and it’s pretty odd seeing a fight in an office between Brown and Borgnine, but otherwise I wouldn’t say this is worth going out of your way to see, even though it DOES have the typically groovy soundtrack from Quincy Jones. Still, I’m not sure why it got praised on that one board, although as you can guess already, I don’t always agree with the popular or even the “niche” opinion, no matter how small it is.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
District 9
District 9 (2009)
89% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 186 reviews)
Runtime: 112 minutes
Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, William Allen Young, Robert Hobbs
From: TriStar Pictures/Wingnut Films
I know, I’ve been lax in putting up new stuff here but the past few days have been busy with a variety of activities, so thus it is just now that I’ve been able to do this. Last Friday I went to downtown Orlando and not only did I watch this, but I went to a local club that happens to be like a 2 minute walk away from the theatre. It was quite the night there. I was at the club for a 1 dollar beer and then I left to go watch the movie at the Plaza Cinema Café, which is better than what it was when it opened in late May, but still needs some work. While I was there I had some sort of frozen alcoholic fruity drink known as an Orange Creamsicle. It was good. However, that didn’t affect what I thought of the movie. I did write about it once I got home from a night where it ended on drama but the next night I realized what the drama was about so I wasn’t mad about it anymore. I won’t talk about that, but I will post what I said about the movie on MySpace a few days ago, where I wrote it while drinking a mixed drink at home, so I don’t think that really affected it, but I figured I’d better mention it anyway, just in case.
“It’s a shame (I didn’t like this more), as the movie looks to cost a lot more than its small budget would indicate, the acting was fine-enough all around, the aliens looked nice, the director of this has great potential, and shit blows up nicely in the action scenes. The story, though… sorry to say, but I thought that the story was absolute horseshit, with a horrible ending. I can’t really delve into my issues with the story here without giving out major spoilers, but one thing I can admit here is that believe it or not, the aliens and humans are somehow able to communicate with each other with no effort, as if they both speak the same language, even though that’s far from the case. The aliens speak gibberish that’s akin to Klingon or the language that Chewbacca speaks! No shit. I can’t suddenly understand why Klingons or Wookiees speak without subtitles but for whatever reason, the humans and aliens can speak to each other with no problems. The aliens even know curse words like “fuck”! That’s far from the only complaint I have, though. The entire reason why the aliens are there and can’t leave and are a part of the city that they’re stuck in (Johannesburg, South Africa; the story relates to apartheid in the past and yes I realize that; they doesn’t do anything to change my opinion on the film) is illogical and dumb. Many questions were arisen as I watched the film and not really any of them were answered. Stuff happened that shouldn’t have only because “it’s a movie” and certain characters were needed for later or whatnot. The ending… it’s not a happy one and it makes all the main characters look like shit and total chumps… one of them goes directly against what he said motivated him to continue on rather than give up and just die. Yeah, this movie royally pissed me off and judging by the response I got already when I logically bitched about it on an internet forum, I guess I’ll be labeled a “troll” for my opinions on this even though I’m not being honest and not trolling, and I’ll probably not understand why most everyone is slobbering over this movie.”
Yeah, I curse more often while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage or 10.
A few days later and after the virulent reaction I got online for saying that I didn’t care for the movie, I still stand by what I said. I mean, to give away a SPOILER here, the reason why the alien ship is in South Africa and is stuck in limbo is because some sort of part fell off it and it vanished, without anyone finding it or whatever. If you think that’s dumb, note that the aliens have amazing firepower, which is an important part of the plot, and yet they don’t use it to prevent being abused by us humans because… well, just because, as far as I could tell. I mean, I could see no explanation for why that happened and yet it did. It’s this kind of stuff that bothered me and I guess I’ll never figure out why everyone else is able to look past such major plot holes like that and fall in love with this. Oh well, though. Like I said, I liked the acting all in all (especially from Copley; this was pretty much his debut and he was in most of this film) and the director could be a big name in the future.
89% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 186 reviews)
Runtime: 112 minutes
Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, William Allen Young, Robert Hobbs
From: TriStar Pictures/Wingnut Films
I know, I’ve been lax in putting up new stuff here but the past few days have been busy with a variety of activities, so thus it is just now that I’ve been able to do this. Last Friday I went to downtown Orlando and not only did I watch this, but I went to a local club that happens to be like a 2 minute walk away from the theatre. It was quite the night there. I was at the club for a 1 dollar beer and then I left to go watch the movie at the Plaza Cinema Café, which is better than what it was when it opened in late May, but still needs some work. While I was there I had some sort of frozen alcoholic fruity drink known as an Orange Creamsicle. It was good. However, that didn’t affect what I thought of the movie. I did write about it once I got home from a night where it ended on drama but the next night I realized what the drama was about so I wasn’t mad about it anymore. I won’t talk about that, but I will post what I said about the movie on MySpace a few days ago, where I wrote it while drinking a mixed drink at home, so I don’t think that really affected it, but I figured I’d better mention it anyway, just in case.
“It’s a shame (I didn’t like this more), as the movie looks to cost a lot more than its small budget would indicate, the acting was fine-enough all around, the aliens looked nice, the director of this has great potential, and shit blows up nicely in the action scenes. The story, though… sorry to say, but I thought that the story was absolute horseshit, with a horrible ending. I can’t really delve into my issues with the story here without giving out major spoilers, but one thing I can admit here is that believe it or not, the aliens and humans are somehow able to communicate with each other with no effort, as if they both speak the same language, even though that’s far from the case. The aliens speak gibberish that’s akin to Klingon or the language that Chewbacca speaks! No shit. I can’t suddenly understand why Klingons or Wookiees speak without subtitles but for whatever reason, the humans and aliens can speak to each other with no problems. The aliens even know curse words like “fuck”! That’s far from the only complaint I have, though. The entire reason why the aliens are there and can’t leave and are a part of the city that they’re stuck in (Johannesburg, South Africa; the story relates to apartheid in the past and yes I realize that; they doesn’t do anything to change my opinion on the film) is illogical and dumb. Many questions were arisen as I watched the film and not really any of them were answered. Stuff happened that shouldn’t have only because “it’s a movie” and certain characters were needed for later or whatnot. The ending… it’s not a happy one and it makes all the main characters look like shit and total chumps… one of them goes directly against what he said motivated him to continue on rather than give up and just die. Yeah, this movie royally pissed me off and judging by the response I got already when I logically bitched about it on an internet forum, I guess I’ll be labeled a “troll” for my opinions on this even though I’m not being honest and not trolling, and I’ll probably not understand why most everyone is slobbering over this movie.”
Yeah, I curse more often while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage or 10.
A few days later and after the virulent reaction I got online for saying that I didn’t care for the movie, I still stand by what I said. I mean, to give away a SPOILER here, the reason why the alien ship is in South Africa and is stuck in limbo is because some sort of part fell off it and it vanished, without anyone finding it or whatever. If you think that’s dumb, note that the aliens have amazing firepower, which is an important part of the plot, and yet they don’t use it to prevent being abused by us humans because… well, just because, as far as I could tell. I mean, I could see no explanation for why that happened and yet it did. It’s this kind of stuff that bothered me and I guess I’ll never figure out why everyone else is able to look past such major plot holes like that and fall in love with this. Oh well, though. Like I said, I liked the acting all in all (especially from Copley; this was pretty much his debut and he was in most of this film) and the director could be a big name in the future.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Inglorious Bastards
Inglorious Bastards (Quel maledetto treno blindato) (1978)
Runtime: 99 minutes
Directed by: Enzo G. Castellari
Starring: Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson, Peter Hooten, Michael Pergolani
From: Films Concorde/Capitol International
Yes, it’s Inglorious Bastards, not Inglorious Basterds. This is the original film that Tarantino took the title from, the barebones plot, and little else for his Basterds, coming out this Friday. Before I talk about the original, let me mention that I’m not sure how Basterds will turn out. I know that many people seem to slobber over everything that Quentin does and say that all of his movies are all-time classics, but I sure as shit don’t feel the same way. While I know there are probably some people who dislike all of his work, I’ll say that I really enjoyed Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and I enjoyed Death Proof (I was able to tolerate those harpy women characters and their nonstop yakking; the car chase and ending does a lot for the flick), but his other stuff, no way. Jackie Brown bored me and I really disliked both Kill Bill movies. Sorry, but I disliked *all* of the characters in that movie, so it’s kind of hard to like a movie when you feel that way. What people see in that movie, I’m not quite sure.
What I’ve seen of Basterds (the trailer and that’s really it) and I’m not sure if this is going to be any good or if it’s something that will make me angry. I’m not blown away by the footage like most people apparently are, let me put it that way. Still, I’ll likely see it on the big screen; I saw a screening of Pulp Fiction earlier in the year when it was shown specially at Universal Studio Citywalk’s movie theatre, but that’ll be the first first-run movie from QT for me.
As for this 1978 Italian war drama/action flick, it’s about a band of soldiers who are about to be court-martialed for various crimes, but after an attack they escape and they you’ll see their escapades. I managed to find this DVD at a Movie Gallery, of all places. They had a 1 DVD version of the 3 DVD set that was released last year. The movie isn’t all that great (oddly enough, I also have to complain about the characters here. They weren’t that bad, come to think of it, but not really all that likeable either) but it’s helped out by its pace and how a lot of stuff happens. To give you an idea as to what to expect here, there’s a scene where they stumble upon a bevy of naked beauties and of course, the scene ends with a gunfight between the squad and the naked beauties! Stuff happens and the action sequences are pretty entertaining, so I’ll say that while this isn’t a must-see European cinema classic or anything like that, if you at least want to see the original Bastards, then you’ll want to check it out.
I do have to give praise, though, to the people that did the score throughout the movie and the opening credits, both of which can be experienced here. In a few days I'll probably post something new here.
Runtime: 99 minutes
Directed by: Enzo G. Castellari
Starring: Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson, Peter Hooten, Michael Pergolani
From: Films Concorde/Capitol International
Yes, it’s Inglorious Bastards, not Inglorious Basterds. This is the original film that Tarantino took the title from, the barebones plot, and little else for his Basterds, coming out this Friday. Before I talk about the original, let me mention that I’m not sure how Basterds will turn out. I know that many people seem to slobber over everything that Quentin does and say that all of his movies are all-time classics, but I sure as shit don’t feel the same way. While I know there are probably some people who dislike all of his work, I’ll say that I really enjoyed Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and I enjoyed Death Proof (I was able to tolerate those harpy women characters and their nonstop yakking; the car chase and ending does a lot for the flick), but his other stuff, no way. Jackie Brown bored me and I really disliked both Kill Bill movies. Sorry, but I disliked *all* of the characters in that movie, so it’s kind of hard to like a movie when you feel that way. What people see in that movie, I’m not quite sure.
What I’ve seen of Basterds (the trailer and that’s really it) and I’m not sure if this is going to be any good or if it’s something that will make me angry. I’m not blown away by the footage like most people apparently are, let me put it that way. Still, I’ll likely see it on the big screen; I saw a screening of Pulp Fiction earlier in the year when it was shown specially at Universal Studio Citywalk’s movie theatre, but that’ll be the first first-run movie from QT for me.
As for this 1978 Italian war drama/action flick, it’s about a band of soldiers who are about to be court-martialed for various crimes, but after an attack they escape and they you’ll see their escapades. I managed to find this DVD at a Movie Gallery, of all places. They had a 1 DVD version of the 3 DVD set that was released last year. The movie isn’t all that great (oddly enough, I also have to complain about the characters here. They weren’t that bad, come to think of it, but not really all that likeable either) but it’s helped out by its pace and how a lot of stuff happens. To give you an idea as to what to expect here, there’s a scene where they stumble upon a bevy of naked beauties and of course, the scene ends with a gunfight between the squad and the naked beauties! Stuff happens and the action sequences are pretty entertaining, so I’ll say that while this isn’t a must-see European cinema classic or anything like that, if you at least want to see the original Bastards, then you’ll want to check it out.
I do have to give praise, though, to the people that did the score throughout the movie and the opening credits, both of which can be experienced here. In a few days I'll probably post something new here.
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